Day care policies vex mom

A Columbia mom thought she was being proactive when she put her yet-to-be-born child on the University of Missouri’s Child Development Lab’s waiting list three months into pregnancy.

That was nearly a year ago, and Lisa Dodds’ baby has yet to get a spot. Why?

“It’s reverse discrimination,” said Dodds, the mother of a white male infant.

It’s true the on-campus program wants to fill its limited spots with children from a variety of backgrounds, Director Jessie Bradley said. But that’s because the center serves as a teaching tool for students, she said.

“The reason why we do this is because this is a laboratory and not just a child-care facility,” Bradley said. “We have 35 students taking a lab course and interacting with children and families. We set up an environment where they have access to different situations and learn how to work with families from different backgrounds.”

The MU Child Development Lab enrolls 95 children, from 6 weeks old to third grade. When a slot for a specific age becomes open, Bradley said administrators will review the waiting list to see which children of that age would best diversify the class. In addition to gender and race, the lab also looks for children from nontraditional family structures, such as same-sex partner households and grandparents raising children, she said. Siblings of children already enrolled have priority.

Even with efforts to diversify, the majority of children enrolled are white, Bradley said.

Dodds said she became familiar with the enrollment practices after her son was born. That’s when she learned an acquaintance of Indian descent had secured a spot for his daughter at the lab despite the fact that Dodds’ son had been on the waiting list longer. And even though her acquaintance turned down the spot, creating an opening, Dodds was told she still could not enroll her son.

She’s hoping for a spot to open in June but is not convinced her son will be selected. Still, she said she wants the policy reviewed for future families.

“It’s clearly unfair,” Dodds said.

Local legal experts said they would need more specific details to determine the legality of such a policy, but at first glance, Dan Viets of the American Civil Liberties Union said the policy surprised him.

“At minimum I would think this would be illegal because it’s publicly funded, but I’m not even sure privately funded preschools” could set such policies, he said.

Steve Wyse, who handles civil rights cases, said governmental agencies can get away with racially based policies if there’s a compelling reason. If the reason in this case is to meet the educational needs of college students, he said, “this would probably pass muster.”

Cande Iveson, who works in MU’s Office of Social Work, is a former advocate and lobbyist for early child-care issues and is familiar with the lab’s policy.

“It’s a long-standing policy that has been a benefit to a number of families, even if that benefit is not obvious to this particular family,” she said. Those benefits, she said, include “the education of minority children and diversity in the classroom experience both for other children and for students of education.”